This story is dedicated to everyone who prayed for my uncle, or just kept him in their thoughts!

He has cancer and it's about 100/1 odds that he'll live, but he was glad to hear that people were thinking of him! Thanks everyone, whether you wrote and told me or not!

Shakti

Our cast:
Jonny Quest (15-16ish)
Hadji Singh (16ish)
Jessie Bannon (15-16ish)
Dr. Benton Quest (old enough)
Roger (Race) Bannon (also old enough)
Dr. Theresa Mandoza (still old enough)
Daisy (Risk) Smith (last one who's old enough)
January (Shadow) Ashley Fiztgerald (16)
February Fiztgerald (16)
Kitten (Kit) (tricky to explain)
Colin (very tricky to explain)
Dana (so tricky to explain you wouldn't believe it if I told you)
Yipe! Think there's enough of them??

The story thus far: Go read it or write to me and I'll tell you.

DISCLAIMER!!! The last five in that list are mine. No one else is and I'm not making any money.

Lost in Shadows ch 2

Jonny coughed, blowing dust out of his lungs. His whole body burned and his head felt like it was going to explode. Something large and wet landed on his face and he opened his eyes, greeted by the sight of something green and slimy looking. He gave an involuntary shout and jumped up, watching as the fat frog plopped slowly away. Jonny took a deep breath, calming himself, and looked around.

February lay to one side of him, mud all over her body. A young man, whom Jonny assumed was either Kit or Colin (it looked more like Colin) wearing the image inducer, was half in a small lake. Luckily, his face was out of the water.

Jonny groaned as his head started to throb. Sitting back down and bending over, he held it in his hands, trying vainly to block out the pain. Behind him Feb groaned and sat up, her black hair falling in her face.

"I feel like sh--"

Colin woke up then, coughing the water he had swallowed out of his lungs. "Jonny?"

"I'm right here."

February looked around, blue eyes squinting at the trees and swarms of mesquitos. "And I really don't think I want to know where "here" is."

Jonny just nodded. "What happened?" he asked after a minute. Colin coughed again, then rubbed his throat.

February smiled haphazardly. "The transporter wasn't totally ready to be used yet. From what I can glean from January it threw us in different places."

Jonny frowned, blond eyebrows furrowing. "How do you know what January thinks?"

February rolled her eyes. "I think you hit your head harder then you thought. We have a telepathic link, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Jonny said, nodding slowly. "Does she know where the others are?"

February closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and looked at the blond. "She says your dad and Dana are with her, but she doesn't know where the others are."

Jonny nodded, feeling relived that his dad was fine, but worried about the rest of his family. "So, where are they?"

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January kicked at a sand pile, just because she felt nasty. She was hot, tired, dusty, dirty, thirsty, hungry, and she's just bitten her tongue. This really sucked. No wait, worse then sucked. It--it--well, she was too hot to think of something appropriately nasty, but when she did, this was it.

"Oh, just shut up," she snapped to no one in particular.

Benton whipped around, looking in shock at the young lady. "Pardon??"

January sighed and shook her head, not bothering to look up. "Not you. Feb."

Benton nodded, looking at her oddly. "Are they all right?"

"Colin's bruised, Jonny has a sprained ankle, Feb cut her finger. Other then that, they're fine. And in a better spot then we are." She looked around at the desert surroundings, wondering if they would all die of heat prostration before they got to a mall or something. Then it occurred to her that they were more likely to find a train of camels then a mall. That was a horrible prospect. She refused to ride a camel. They spit. And they probably shed too. And she could just imagine what--

"Any idea when we'll see civilization?" Dana asked, interrupting January's thoughts.

"Hopefully sometime in the next millennia." January found herself muttering.

Dana looked horrified and ran to Benton, grabbing his arm and keeping stride with him. "Is that true??"

Benton smiled down at the girl, who had stripped down to almost nothing, saying her fur was hotter then their skin. "No, sweetheart. We'll get to some people soon." He didn't add "I hope."

"I bet Kit got send to Hawaii or something." Dana said sullenly.

January laughed. "He better not have."

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Jessie watched enviously as Kit pulled off everything but his shorts. It wasn't fair that boys could do that and girls couldn't. She scratched her arm and traded looks with Dr. Mandoza, who also appeared to be intensely jealous. Both women smiled at each other, knowing what the other was thinking without having to say it.

Kit took two running steps and effortlessly launched himself into a tree, landing at least ten feet up. He twisted around and smiled down at them, completely at ease. "Want I should get us some food? I can hunt it," he offered helpfully.

Jessie forced a smiled and shook her head. "That's okay, I don't think we need you to hunt for us."

Kit looked upset for a moment, then shrugged and disappeared into the small forest.

"Hey, Kit! Come back!" Jess called, running after him. She hadn't got very far when he reached down and grabbed her by the back of her neck, pulling her up onto his perch with one hand and covering her mouth with the other.

"Shhh."

Jessie tried not to move, she was balanced precariously, only his fuzzy arm keeping her from falling.

Kit cocked his head in a curiously animal fashion, listening intently to something she couldn't hear. Just then the doctor came crashing through the bushes, much like Jessie had a minute ago. Kit stiffened reflexively and Jessie started to struggle as his sharp claws bit into the skin on her arm. Kit took a deep breath and loosened his grin again, whispering "sorry, sorry!" over and over.

Jessie shook her head and he let go of her mouth. "It's okay. Just don't drop me."

Kit was highly offended. "I wouldn't drop you!"

Theresa stopped when she heard the voices and went back, wishing they had told her she was blundering right by. Oh well, that little cat boy didn't like her much. It wasn't a surprise.

An arm lashed out from the tree beside her, a hand in back covered her mouth. Theresa screamed, the sound muffled by the flesh over her face, and was silenced by a gun barrel pointed to her head.

"Just take it easy, and know one will be hurt," the man said quietly.

Theresa nodded.

She was pushed forward by whoever was behind her, into a clearing where they knew they could be easily seen and heard. "Boy! Come out now or she dies!"

Kit snarled and pushed Jessie back against the tree where she could hold on herself. There was no way they were going to get him. No way.

One of the men looked down at the tracker he held, designed to find the unique pattern of the cat kids when close enough.

They'd lifted the coordinates off that transporter they'd used, then were able to track each and every person. It had been a nice surprise to find out the cats were alive and healthy. There were people going after each of the groups, four in all.

"He's coming closer. Behind us. Stopped. In that tree. Over there. Moving again." The man know the cat could hear him, this one was the most animal like of all three of the experiments. He didn't think human, he didn't act human, and he was the most easily "trained." It was surprising how hard it was to force humans to succumb, but animals were far easier.

Jessie was still climbing out of her tree when she heard the first gunshot. Two more followed closely and Dr. Mandoza screamed--only to be cut short. Jumping the last few feet to the ground she took off running in the direction of the shots, stopping only once to pick up a large branch. Jessie took down the first man without him ever realizing she was there, but two more were on her quickly. Theresa lay in the middle of the field, blood oozing from her upper body--Jess couldn't pinpoint where.

Jessie swung hard, felt her stick crack against a man's skull. She was able to hit one more person before it broke, sending shards flying. Then someone grabbed her from behind, stuck a gun in her mouth. Someone else snagged her hands and both men shoved her out into the clearing. "You'd better hope that boy likes you better then he did her," someone whispered close to her ear. Jessie shuddered as she came close to the doctor. She was lying so still.

"Come out! Or she's dead!" The gun was shoved father into her mouth and Jessie almost gagged. "No fooling, kid. Come out."

There was no warning before Kit stepped from the trees, more predator then human.

Jessie drew in a deep breath, then screamed, shaking her head and trying to make Kit back off. Four guns were leveled at his head in a flash and he leapt back, into the forest.

Jess breathed a sigh of relief, which was quickly replaced by pain as the butt of a gun made contact with the side of her head. She would've fallen if someone hadn't grabbed her and held her up, and even then she had no idea which way was up and which was down. She wondered briefly if she was going to throw up, but the feeling passed.

"Out! Now!"

She heard a roar, as if from a great distance, and wondered if a lion was here somewhere. Her thoughts were thick though, and it took her a moment to realize that lions didn't live in places like this. It took her another minute to see that the shadow she'd been watching was Kit.

"Come on." Someone close said.

Kit snarled, more in anger then fear, and stepped closer. Jessie was like a litter mate, and he couldn't let them hurt her. But he didn't want to be hurt either.

"Come on, boy."

He snarled again and jumped back, into the shadows. He saw a tiny movement out of the corner of his eye, and reacted with more instinct then anything. As he leapt out of the way a bullet seared the bark of the tree behind him, and one of the men turned to yell at the trigger happy agent.

Jessie felt the adrenaline surge clear her head and she checked around to be sure that Kit hadn't been hit.

The men were tense, and tired of waiting for the cat. The one in front of her stepped up and leveled his gun, then fired just over her shoulder. "COME OUT NOW!"

Kit did, then. He leapt from a tree, landing on one of the suits. Jessie felt her breath come in sharply as she saw him clearly. The fur on his lower arms was soaked in blood, not necessarily his own. He walked on his toes and hunched over, making no sound other then the ever present snarl. Blood was on his teeth, and his tangled black hair fell into the blood thirsty eyes. The fur on his back stood straight up, making him look far bigger then he was. Then someone leveled a gun and shot at his feet, distracting him while another man shot at his head, hitting his chest as he jumped into the air. Kit staggered back, looking shocked, then staggered forward, snarling still.

Jessie breathed a sigh of relief when she saw he'd been tagged with a tranquilizer, instead of a bullet.

"That should take him down," someone was saying. Someone else started to laugh.

"You haven't seen this boy in full motion, have you?"

Kit leapt for a throat, roaring as he did so. Sharp claws bit into skin, killing the man before the tranq guy shot Kit again, this time in his shoulder. Kit stumbled forward, his face still furious. Jessie couldn't believe it. Now if only the guy holding her would look at Kit, instead of her.

Kit went to slash at someone else, and was plugged with another dart. His growl turned into a animalistic whine as he took a few steps and fell to all four limbs, his arms trembling.

Someone walked over and looked at him, then kicked him hard, sending him tumbling over the ground. Finally he lay still, ribcage going slowly up and down as his features relaxed.

"All right, restrain him."

"What should we do with her?" a gunman asked, looking at Jessie.

The man in charge looked up, then made a dismissive gesture. "Take her for a long walk off a short bridge."

The man snickered and pushed her off into the brush, then twisted her arm back to be sure she kept walking. Jessie's mind raced. She had to find some way out of this, she was going to be killed! She'd been in worse situations then this surely. A little voice in the back of her head reminded her that normally she had help in the form of Jonny, Hadji or Bandit.

"Experiment's loaded! Hurry it up!" Someone shouted from farther away.

The gunman gave her a shove, making her stumble. He didn't want her to turn around and kick his face in or something of the sort. She was, after all, Race Bannon's daughter. They had him on file. He leveled his gun and smiled. "Sorry, sweetheart. Just following orders."

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Kit's eyes opened fractionally as he heard the crack of gunfire. Then a needle pierced his skin and he fell back to sleep.

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For reference: First was Casting Shadows, then Shadowy Domain (Caterwaul also fits in right here, though that isn't really a complete story). This is the third story (in what is quickly becoming a series!).

Did you know . . .
Cheetahs are the only cat that cannot retract their claws.

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